Blog

During these weird times of lockdown and social distancing, many business owners are pivoting to online solutions. We are certainly being approached by people with new ideas who want to make sure they address the intellectual property dimension appropriately.

Thinking bigger, specifically considering what business we’re really in, is a great way to potentially come up with ideas that would be valued by your customers.

A benefit of articulating a big purpose for your business is so you broaden your vision and don’t limit your thinking to the products and services your business currently sells. It’s important to see opportunities which you might otherwise overlook.

Although it isn’t an easy question to answer, it can make or break your business to see yourself correctly. Most companies think the business they’re really in is tied into their products and services. By avoiding a narrow...

Podcasting is the next marketing frontier. The shift to mobile and people’s lack of time are two reasons why podcasts are increasingly popular. We may all be too busy to sit down to read a book, but it’s easy enough

to consume content during times that would otherwise go to waste. If you want to learn then listening to a podcast or an audio book during a commute, when exercising, or cooking and cleaning is a great way to make time to do so.

There are far fewer podcasts than blogs. So, there is less noise, and podcasts are a good way to communicate a message to a wider audience.

Purpose of the Podcast

I want to support founders to create better businesses on stronger foundations, and one way to do this involves developing a powerful brand that uses distinctive brand elements. Your brand is one of the most valuable assets your business will produce if...

We usually associate brands with companies and products – particularly with big household names like Apple or Microsoft Word. But nowadays, anything can be a brand. Even as an individual, you have a personal brand. How should you deal with that?

Business branding is about creating a comprehensive message for your company and product or service, using names, logos, slogans, copy and other collateral. Branding actively creates the perception you hope consumers will have through coming into contact with your company, product or service.

Personal branding makes some people uncomfortable because it evokes an impression of falseness. If people spend time thinking about how they want to come across, surely that means they are being artificial rather than authentic? They might be too focused on creating the ‘right’ impression rather than just being themselves?

Personal branding is an aspect of the company brand

It is generally accepted that what makes an asset valuable, whether it is a digital or physical one, or any type of intellectual property such as a patent, trade secret, trademark, copyright or design, is based on answers to questions such as

How much income is it generating?

What is the pattern of income production?

How long can that continue?

What is the risk it will not materialise as predicted due to obsolescence, dilution, or market changes?

While there is information out there on valuation of intellectual property and business, the aim I have here is to consider how to add value to your business when you are embarking on business branding or new marketing campaigns. What does it take to create a strong IP that is more likely to endure long term?

Separating Branding and IP Protection

It’s important to take on board that using a silo approach does not give you the best outcome for your projects. Getting the best return on your investment involves treating...

The silo approach to branding whereby creatives produce brand designs and names without any reference to Intellectual Property lawyers, while IP lawyers protect IP that they’ve had part in advising upon, does not give business the best outcome either from a branding perspective or from an IP one.

The separation between the worlds of branding and IP protection is a hangover from the 20th century and has no place in the fast-paced digital world we now live in, and into which we have been catapulted more completely by the Coronavirus.

A 21st century approach to branding needs to emulate the likes of Google who understand that achieving a strong brand requires an inter-disciplinary approach. They break down the silos in their organisations to enable powerful brand creation.

The small business end of the market is not even aware of the problem that the silo approach entails. The upshot is that founders of businesses undergoing branding get poor value for money.

Business has changed radically since Milton Freidman wrote in Capitalism and Freedom (1962) that there is “one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits”

The changes in our digital environment - increased globalisation, new technologies, and radical socio-political shifts - mean the world of business looks nothing like it did back in the 1960s. And now the Corona Virus epidemic will undoubtedly further impact the forces that drive business.

These shifts cement the trend away from pure profit-focused business towards purpose-led organisations.

Stakeholders at all levels in businesses want to set a purpose beyond the balance sheet – one that contributes a positive impact in the wider world.

Business for Good

Businesses today are finding that doing good can also mean doing well. Apparently, companies with an established sense of purpose – one that’s...

In the lead up to the Christmas and new year season, most of us are accustomed to seeing television advertisements featuring well-known actors and personalities endorsing a range of luxury products such as perfumes and watches. While it is obvious that a personality like Sean Connery will have been handsomely rewarded for endorsing a famous brand of watch, such endorsements raise the interesting question as to what extent a person, famous or otherwise, can control the use of his or her image or likeness in the sale of products or services. Can, for example, Sean Connery stop me from selling 2020 calendars bearing his image on the front cover?

At least in the UK there is as yet no recognised legal right of publicity or personality. This means that a person has no specific legal right in the UK to control the unauthorised use of their image or appearance.

Celebrities

That said, that does not mean that persons such as celebrities are not without some legal remedies. It is...

Every single business, charity or entity has a ‘brand’ in the sense that they all have an identity rather like you or I have an identity as people. To work out the details so that what you say, how you operate and what you promise to reflect the way you want to be known as a business and brand takes time to think through.

Values and beliefs

It involves working out which values of the founder are to be paramount in establishing what the brand of the business or charity represents. What its personality is, and what it wants to stand for – it needs to be something that resonates with its customers or those they serve.

Working out what you want to uniquely provide to the market, and your marketing messages to evoke a desired response in the minds of your customers through your brand promise is the first step involved to brand your business. Until your business can consistently deliver that, you will not have a brand

Whatever endeavour you’re hoping to succeed in, the way to go is to identify the habits you need to change. Then once you’ve decided what new habits will get you to your destination, create space in your life for them and stick to doing them long term and consistently, day by day, week by week, year by year, and you will see a shift in your fortunes.

Change rarely happens overnight. Provided the new habits are appropriate to reach the end goal you have in mind, you will undoubtedly achieve results. It may happen slowly, but it’s essential that it happens one decision at a time, which is what this blog post is all about.

Let me give you an example of what that looks like when you’re trying to do something like give up smoking.

Stopping Smoking

Anyone who has been addicted to smoking will understand how tough it can be to stop. I used to be a heavy smoker and desperately wanted to give up smoking. I knew smoking wasn’t doing my health...

Brand is the most misunderstood word. It’s among the words such as intellectual property, trade mark, business design and branding which impact important business issues that I deal with. Yet because the terminology is confused and confusing it’s difficult to communicate clear messages.

Perhaps the huge failure rate of businesses has something to do with the fact that these words and their importance to business success are obscured by so much misinformation and so many myths.

These words carry connotations for people, that are often quite wrong. Therefore, their use has the potential to alter one’s message.

It’s bad enough that the word ‘branding’ for many people signifies logos and visual designs, but the fact that brand strategy also gets confused with visual identity and designs means that the whole discussion around brand and intangibles gets obscured.

Shireen Smith is a lawyer and founder of a successful law firm, Azrights. She is a bestselling author on Amazon of two books on intellectual property Legally Branded and Intellectual Property Revolution. She is also a trained journalist. As well as advising top blue chip companies like Reuters Shireen has supported hundreds of SMEs to protect their intellectual property when launching, growing and exiting their businesses. She brings the wealth of insights this background has provided her with to her training courses.

Join Now

By signing up for Legally Branded Newsletter, You will gain insights every week on intellectual property. Paying attention to IP is the way to discover what steps to take to preserve the value of your assets, to grow your profit margins, create new income streams, protect your market share, and prevent competitors from copying your ideas.